Richard Dormandy

Some things come as a bundle. The South that I experienced was delightful, welcoming, open, kind, homely, family affirming, moral, respectful, religious, prayerful, tithing and church-loving, celebratory, feeling and empathic.  I really enjoyed so much of it.  I felt looked after and safe. Yet it’s also fairly homophobic, solidly republican and distrustful of democrats, racist often, strong on disapproval, distrustful of change, and very defensive of the Southern “Country” way of life.  Being proud of being “Country” is a strong theme in Country music.

The thing is though, this is all part of a package.  One might call for change but what do you lose from the goodness of the whole if change comes in at the corners?  It’s an unknown – and this is one of the paradoxes of the United States that I visited:  On the one hand this a nation of rural pioneers and urban entrepreneurs – a “go, get it ” nation. Yet on the other hand it’s intensely conservative and very suspicious of change.  You see this paradox both in the individual people, and the fabric of society, as well as in domestic and foreign policy – and it intrigued me

Of course things are different in the cities – even between Nashville and Franklin twenty miles south.  Things are acceptable in the cities which would barely be spoken of in the towns and rural areas.  In Memphis, the Congregational Church which ran the hostel I stayed at was self-defined as gay-friendly: “open and affirming.” Now, in the South there are churches everywhere. There are 7687 Tennessee churches registered on the website USAChurch.com plus there are thousands more tiny churches which probably aren’t registered. When I was searching for the website of the church attached to my hostel I found a list of “Welcoming Gay Friendly Churches in Tennessee”.  There were 60 of them, mostly concentrated in the cities.

Perhaps it’s significant that this church was in Memphis (though there were more in Nashville):  their worship and living style seemed to be a conscious extension of the Civil Rights Movement.  Yet Memphis as a whole is still deeply divided racially – both socially and in terms of economic and educational opportunity. So even the urban areas are full of contradiction.

New Orleans is often seen as the city which defies the Southern trend, is also deeply divided racially and economically.  It’s also the great fleshpot of the South where people concsiously go to live out their “other side”, especially during mardi gras. Which begs the question:  apart from New Orleans, when everyone is so clean-living and righteous, where does the shadow side go?

It’s an issue that was explored in TV such Twin Peaks and films such as American Beauty.  Pornography is not readily available in print (newsagents barely exist); every now and then along the Interstate Highways you see big signs saying “ADULT EMPORIIUM NEXT EXIT” or such. In Mississippi and I think Alabama, however, it is against the law to sell sex toys. (I read an article about this: an illicit sex shop was caught out by a journalist who bought a vibrator there and then called back to ask what they thought about her exposing them. They simply demonstrated the object’s beneficial sensations on the arm, neck, legs etc.). However, internet porn is a huge issue and many helplines are set up to address it; gambling is a big issue as well. Inevitably because strip joints and other such places are so heavily disapproved of (and I’m not saying that I approve of them myself!), they become more marginalised and dangerous. (I read about this but sadly can’t draw upon personal experience!).  Violence against women, mainly domestic violence, is high. So these are some of the dark holes into which the shadows are poured. They become the cess pits so that the rest of society can stay clean.

The goodness and wholesomeness of the South is legendary, but the other side of maintaining righteousness is so often strong disapproval, and this makes handling the shadow issues, and even those which shouldn’t be “shadow” but are so perceived, very tricky indeed – sometimes tragically so.  As long as you agree that repentance is needed you can “deal with it” – “get help” etc. But what if you thought that repentance wasn’t needed (classically in the area of sexulaity).  Some things just are not comfortably on the agenda.

Here in the South, which, apart from a few pockets, is solidly Republican even though many of them speak a different language(!), defending the American Way is huge cultural feature.  The soldiers of the Civil War are held up as heroes for defending the way of life they knew and loved. There’s no acknowledgement in the public monuments I saw that the war was a futile waste of life, and little acknowledgement aspects of the Southern way (eg slavery) were immoral. In Vicksburg (I think) they didn’t celebrate Independence Day (July 4th) until 1968 because this was also the date when the city fell to Union troops. For over 100 years they were still smarting from the indignity.

The American Way may have changed however, but the principle of defending it – whatever “it” is perceived to be – is very very strong, and this seems to me to be an essential key to understanding all sorts of things from US gobal politics to conservatism in faith issues, to the state tax laws which, in the South are generally minimal on property and high on food, (thus favouring the landed wealthy and keeping at bay the already struggling landless poor). Any crack in this status quo, which reserves the goodness and tradition of the Southern (and indeed American), way of life, is seen as a potential threat and must be resisted at all costs.

This is linked to the whole issue of gun ownership.  You own a gun in order to defend yourself and your family. There might be one on the dashboard of your car “just in case”. So defending Amercian liberties and the American way is a matter of personal involvement, but it’s also evident in global policy. The invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq were deemed necessary to remove a truly perceived threat, especially in the wake of 9/11. It was the same defensive fear that fueled the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis.  It’s not enough to live and let live.  The only way to guarantee my security is to destroy anyone else who might be a threat to it.  That’s not to suggest that all Americans think in this way – there’s a huge and significant anti-war movement across many parts of the USA. But I felt I was beginning to understand why a different thinking policy (and majority?) prevailed.

Again, the issue arises in areas of personal ethics or belief. Even mildly liberal standpoints on sexual ethics, abortion or different belief structures such as atheism, and so on are frowned upon, held at bay, or forcefully opposed because their creeping corrupting influence is feared and the way of righteous living must be upheld.  Belief in evolution is still regarded as suspiciously communist in many places.  I got talking to one chap who was an atheist but “kept quiet about it.”  I asked a young man about the difference between North and South. He said, “Oh yes – there’s a huge divide.  Some of the things that go on in those northern cities would never happen here!” I was tempted to ask what “some of those things were” but thought it best to leave this answer to my imagination.

YET being here has helped me see the context for all this.

This is a young nation.  They have a known history – in some places they can more or less say, “my great, great grand daddy built this road or established this plantation or whatever. They know who founded the towns and cities, and when they did so.  This is completely different to the older white cultures of Europe.

When you come to the States and see the fabulous, huge landscape, the forests of Tennessee, the bayous of Louisiana, you think, “who wouldn’t want to defend this?” Then when you consider the incredible achievements of simply building roads and railways across such large expanses, bringing electricity and clean running water there, it really is something you would be ferocious in defending.

And of course this pioneer spirit continues, all feeding into the defensive mentality.  Every year people of the rural south are urged to prepare themselves for electrical outage by the purchase or hire of emergency generators. Teaching the truth, helping people get out of debt (another massive issue here), living with the Lord, is all part of building the nation. These people are deeply connected to their nation-building forebears in ways that Europeans have no experience of.

And so encouragement is a core cultural value. “I appreciate that” is a commonly heard phrase.  At Fort Worth Airport a man went up to a soldier and said, “I want to say thank you for all you’re doing among the troops and for the country. I really appreciate it.” Frequently I saw “support our troops” slogans. It’s not just that not supporting the troops would be virtual treason in many quarters; but people are fed a very restricted diet of outlooks by the media.  It’s sometimes said that Cuba has the paradox of very high literacy thanks to the state, yet total restriction of literary materials also thanks to the state. Yet the same is true in much of the USA. Most radio I could tune into was vociferously conservative and you have to tune into BBC news to get something unbiased on TV – though most people watch Fox or CNN.  So, as in Cuba, people are constantly fed a line.  The difference is that in the States they call it freedom of speech whereas of the Cuban situation they call it brainwashing.

So what will become of the USA?  Why is there so much opposition to the health reform when one in five Americans struggle with hunger and 13.5% officially live in poverty?  It’s partly because there is a deep distrust of anything that might erode the edges of the American Way, the way it’s always been, the way “we” feel happy, wholesome and home-loving, the way we feel free and right, and proper, loving and loved-by God.  Will Obama win such people over?  Some are changing their minds, but if the edges begin to lose their resistance what will happen to the whole?

Cuba was a fascinating place with all sorts of subtleties and nuances. It was also interesting to compare it with how I perceived things ten years ago.  The main difference seemed to be in the availability of consumer goods and the growing wedge of people who have access (regulated and otherwise) to the Convertible Peso. Not all such goods are bought over the counter of course. Some are exchanged for specialist services of one kind of another. So although there may not be much of a black market in the traditional sense, there are any number of ingenious alternative economies going on.

Does this mean the Cuban revolution is a self-demonstrating failure?

Generally speaking the country is very poor in financial terms; the socialist state simply cannot generate enough wealth.  How ever many rousing rallying cries they make, how ever many model farmers they hold up for acclamation from this province or that, how ever much they appeal to the morality of hard work and patriotism, the system is never as efficient as free enterprise – ie capitalism.
People in the middle wedge clearly want more freedom – more ability to make more money to buy more things and eventually to travel – especially to family members in the USA or elsewhere.

Eventually this will come – it has to. The Obama administration should help matters, but the Cuban government are certainly not employing much rhetoric of change. Posters around Cuba show Raul Castro portrayed with Fidel, with some pictures taken from early days.  The message is clear:  “Don’t worry Cuban citizens, Raul has always been, and will always be as “revolutionary” as his older brother.

So has the revolution failed – or will it be seen to have failed when eventually more freedom arrives? In my opinion certainly not.

Yes, there have been 50 years of struggle; yes, housing is a problem which will probably only get worse; yes, it remains the case that religious and other liberties are very much curtailed. But consider the achievements:

• The achievements in literacy, medical care, and infant mortality rate remain outstanding.
• The fact that Cuba managed to throw off its exploitative North American and other magnates and negotiate its way peacefully through 50 years of international affairs, finding one ally after another, is truly impressive whatever your standpoint.
• The domestic tenure of Fidel Castro as head of state is quite remarkable, even more so for not being the kind of repressive regime we often see in other dictatorships. (That’s not to deny that civil liberties have been considerably restricted however). A distinctive feature of his office have been regular lengthy speeches publicised in the Government Press (there no other to speak of), which consistently appeal to Cuban patriotism and the moral legitimacy of his position. This never-ending river of defence is met with wry longsuffering by many Cubans, especially those with access to Convertible Pesos, but continues to be accepted as the loving defence of the Cuban people by most.
• The number of Olympic medals tells its own tale – there were none prior to the Revolution. As in so many Socialist countries, the state restricted what was available but in some areas such as sport huge opportunities opened up.

Things will change in Cuba – they’ll have to. But it seems unlikely to me that much will happen while Fidel is still alive. This is Cuba’s Bolivar; this is the man who brought freedom and continued independence to the nation; this is the man who won dignity for the island and put the people on their feet; this is the man who ended the domination of organised crime and prostitution.  It would be an unthinkable betrayal to turn everything over while he was still alive, and any change that does come will be slow, careful, respectful.

So what do people in the USA think about Cuba?  It’s been interesting testing the waters here in the South.  One woman visibly reacted when I said I’d been there – it was as if this was a word that shouldn’t be spoken, let alone heard.  Another person, “Gosh, were you alright? You didn’t get shot or anything?” Others, generally those who’d come south from the North, said things like “oh, we find it difficult to go there – I wish we could.”

The anti-Cuban lobby remains vociferous, especially in Florida which was a crucial state in the election before last. What do they want?  They’re never going to get their businesses back, and nor should they. Nor should they receive a cent in conpensation in my opinion. Through the events of history they had come to rape another land, exploiting its people and taking everything for themselves. they had their booty at the time.  Then, through other events of history they lost it all. No-one likes losing, but there was a battle and they lost. In my view that’s the end of the story. If they’d been innocent parties in the nationalising seizure of their wealth, well that might be another matter. But they weren’t. They were part of one of the worst imperialist exploitations of the Twentieth Century. Tough luck on them.  But it’s easy for me to say – I have no emotional or economic interest.

So what were the best bits?

So many – How can I choose the City of God over Iguacu Falls or the Amazon – or vice versa.

But in  Brazil I’m going to give Recife the top slot because of the people I spent time with and the revelation that was Forro.

In Cuba it’s got to be (a) meeting Ruth at the airport, and (b) getting to meet the artist Mercy Rivadula and her family – yes, I’m choosing that over seeing Los Van Van in a small club in Havana.

In Mexico, apart from the relief of meeting Woodie successfully at the airport, it had to be the Mariachi in Garibaldi Square, and people they played for; and zooming through the Copper Canyon with Woodie on our bikes.

In the USA it had to be rural Lousiana, the sheer joy of Zydeco music, the Gueydan Duck Festival, the people, and dancing at Breaux Bridge.

So those are in the top slots, but there has been so much in the next tier down, very close behind.

Tomorrow (9/11)  I drop in at Grimey’s record store, take my car back, and check in at the airport.

Thank you for travelling with me.

Recording new song at Ryman Auditorium Studio

Open Mic at the Douglas Corner Cafe

Practising new song in the Tourist Office on Broadway, then jamming with a guy in there using a stool as a drum while we played my (funky) version of Your Cheatin’ Heart by Hank Williams.

Re-recording new song at the Ryman (free this time). The engineer said, “That’s a great song – what’s it about?”

Nashville’s musical boxes:  in the streets the traffic light control boxes also have little speakers on them and quietly pump out country classics as you walk by.  That’s weird!

Country Music Hall of Fame – an eye opener was Wanda Jackson – queen of rockabilly and (incredibly) still touring.

Phil Madeira.

Someone I met tonight reminded me of this GREAT Bonnie Raitt album – and in the “Nick of Time” on my final night in Nashville and the last night of my incredible journey I found a FAB place with the best food I’ve tasted since Jambalaya and the best live music since Geno Delafose.

I was recommended the Family Wash by the lady in the Nashville Tourist Information and something made me feel it was worth following up.  Well!  It’s in a strange little nook of the town – East Nashville which is a residential area physically fairly close but culturally miles from the tourist centre – between the river and the railway you might say.

It’s a kind of pub really, quite small on a corner, with good food, fantastic beers, a great atmosphere, and tonight at least really groovy music. I missed it the first time so I had to ask directions from some guys in a shop. They said “You can’t miss it!” And true enough, coming from the other direction you couldn’t.  I wish I’d taken my camera because it was such a happening kind of place with all the pipes exposed in the ceiling, art on the walls, and lots of people there musical types or locals – or both.

The succulent meatloaf was full of flavour and perfectly complemented by the locally (Nashville) brewed Sly Rye Porter beer. The Beatles were playing and the guy next to me was talking to the man behind the bar about which amplifer they were using when this particular song came out. I said “You’ve got a pretty intimate knowledge of the Beatles.” He said, “They are the reason I play guitar.”  Meanwhile on my right, the barman was talking with someone else about the particular picture sleeves of the original Let It Be singles.

The band was Phil Madeira with a bass and drums. Most recently he’s been playing accordian with Emmylou Harris, though tonight he was playing some pretty mean electric guitar, and looking at his profile on myspace he seems to have worked with loads of well known people over the years including Alison Krauss, Kim Carnes amy Grant, Phil Keaggy, and Elvis Costello, either performing, or producing or songwriting. His songs were really well crafted – poignant with a touch of wry humour creeping in, some of them swinging doorways into pertinent issues, others more personal. I dropped him a line on myspace before going, and passed him my CD and the new song too – just in case anything there took his fancy, or if he thought anyone else might like it.

Yes – it’s yet another case of Dormandy Dream On, but I need the space in my bag.  And now it’s time to sleep before packing up one final time.

Well Nashville has been interesting – the Country Music Hall of Fame was fascinating, as was the Tennessee State Museum.
Yesterday I tried another Open Mic but the line had all been arranged two weeks’ previous.  FORTUNATELY just down the road was a secondhand CD shop called The Great Escape – Stacy may remember it from uni days as it’s near there and apparently a bit of a student place.  So I consoled myself with a cheap Toots and the Maytalls album I’d been looking for for a while – I think it’s their most recent one actually, with a plethora of special guests.
Isn’t it nice when things like that happen?

Today I went to a GREAT guitar shop (that Gibson J200 was sublime, as was the G&L telecaster) and a fab drum shop on the way to Franklin.

In Franklin the museum was closed.  BUT Emmylou Harris was buying bread at the bakery.  Unfortunately I wasn’t there at the same time as Emmylou, but it was enough to know that we’d breathed the same air.  I got the low down on a range of musicians (Emmylou, Elvis Costello, Rod Stewart, Tany Tucker, the Judds, even Cliff Richard – to name but a few) visiting or living in the Franklin area from Paul and Stacy who run a soap shop.  Yes – they sell soap, though I just dropped in to buy a bottle of water an we got talking as Paul is from (wait for it…) Leatherhead.

Being about 20-30 miles south of Nashville, Franklin is much quieter (though I think some of them may still be fighting the civil war).  Maybe this would have been a better place to stay in terms of making real contact with people.

Well I left a CD of my new song with Paul, in case he comes across anyone who’s interested in recording it..

Dream on!

Because everyone drives here roadside signs are often simple and direct lines of text: the name of the shop / church / cafe on the top line with their latest offer / sermon title / speciality dish on the next.

Unfortunately, just outside Breaux Bridge this led to the following:

THE CHURCH OF CHRIST MEETS HERE

IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME

Not very far away in St Martinville was another interesting juxtaposition: Deli / Casino.  Maybe the combination is quite common, but it seemed a little strange to be going in for half a pound of feta cheese and a round of roulette.

Down the road was the restored Duchamp Opera House – quite something for a tiny little town. Coming up is a production of Columbo!  Yes – Columbo, the TV series, done by the St Martinville Players.  I wondered whether this might be related to Operas such as Nixon in China or Jerry Springer, but it turned out to be a play adapted from the pilot episode of Columbo.

Language variations is another source of occasional confusion.  In Brazil when we were going to the football match in Rio, a couple of Australian girls said, “I don’t know if we’re dressed appropriately – we’re both wearing thongs.” It felt like too much information at first and I wasn’t quite sure how to respond. Then about a minute later I clicked: flip flops.

Here in the States I was watching a video in a museum and the presenter said something about “the dawning of a new error”.  I was just wondering what error that could be when of course I realised he meant “era”.

Ho hum…

Well one of the great things about wandering naively round the world is that you end up constantly amazed. As I said in my last post, here I was thinking that Nashville would be a dusty little  town with some bars, music shops, and the Grand Ol Opry, only to discover that it’s a big city with these great big road running everywhere.

THIS (to the right) – is what it used to look like in the days of yore, and what it should look like according to my imagination.  Zoom out, however, and then you’ll see that THIS – below left is what it actualy looks like:

No matter!  I got in, found a parking place, headed to Ernest Tubb’s Record Store as I had a $2 off voucher, then Gruhn’s Music Store, which is a kind of guitar mecca. It was a strange place with loads of amazing guitars and no enthusiasm about the place.

Then I went to the Ryman Auditorium which was worth going to but not worth the money. It is a beautiful place, originally built as a preaching hall and then taken over as a concert hall, eventually becoming the home of the Grand Ol Opry.
It’s hard to over-estimate the influence of this famous radio/TV show which still goes out (though from a new venue).  During the 50s and even 60s people would rush home to listen to it around the TV or wireless – it was the only thing that was on really.  Naturally it was virtually, if not all, white, but black people were as dedicated fans as anyone.  Looking at clips of the televised version they’re pretty twee, though with some stunning musical moments.  HOWEVER…

… you might think you detest Country Music, or you may simply be ignorant of it.  So here’s a recommendation that will cost very little.  Go out and buy any Greatest Hits album by Patsy Cline.  For many years she was the designated “Queen of Country” (I think Loretta Lynn may have knocked her off that perch.  You can get a greateest hits CD of hers for about £5 or £6. The songs are inch perfect, crafted exquisitely, sung assuredly, complete without gloss or glitz, absolute killers. “I’ve got your picture (she’s got you)” “Crazy” “Walking after Midnight” “No Never No More” “I Fall To Pieces” are just a few that spring to mind. Each of these songs is as completely satisfying a three minute experience as, well…  a perfect day, a cold beer, a newly-painted wall, a quart of chocolate milk… what it is that fills you up.

The good thing about the Ryman was that you could also record a “souvenir” CD there, (for a price) which gave me the opportunity to take 20 minutes working up a song with guitar that I wrote this morning without – and record it. I wasn’t totally pleased with the outcome so the engineer said I can come back tomorrow and do another recording free.  Nice guy!

Tonight I’m playing (hopefully) at the Douglas Corner Cafe – which hosts quite a famous Open Mic Night. That’s to say, I phoned up and put my name down. What you do is phone between 1pm and 6pm.  I started at 12.57 and hit redial about 10 times before actually getting through.
“Please give your name only, and turn up at 8pm” was the recorded message – to which I responded.
I’m just hoping I did indeed phone the Douglas Corner Cafe and some dubious “Gentleman’s Club” or something.
I’m planning to play “Exploration of You” and the new song which is called “(Kissing) In the Land of the Free.”  Broadly speaking, it’s about civil rights.
update:  it all went fine – quite a good vibe with about 20 performers doing 2 songs each!

Nashville – the fantasy
A homey sort of town, with some wooden bars and people singing in them dressed in western gear, a few horses around, one of those drinking troughs that the bad or drunk guy always falls into,the magic of pedal steel guitar, fast slick country rock lead guitar playing…

Nashville – the reality
(as experienced between the car rental and my hotel, both near the airport)
five lanes of fast traffic in either direction, huge roads, terror that I might be going too slow or too fast, not knowing where I am, peering into the distance for a sign that says “Your hotel this way” while simultaneously focusing on the nearness of the car interior to get the controls right, anxiety that I might make a wrong turn and be swept away to Pennsylvania, a feeling that the car is wobbling all over the road (it wasn’t), the knowledge that a huge truck is bearing down on me (it wasn’t)…

Today I go Downtown.  Every little town I’ve been to has an area called “downtown”.  Downtown Clarksdale was about four roads. It’s just the word for “town centre” but it sounds so grand.  Apparently downtown Nashville is walkable.

Memphis
This all took place in the Memphis Music and Heritage Festival

Jack Oblivion and the Tearjerkers – described themselves as Indie Rock
Joyce Cobb and Hot Fun – great jazz-soul singer with 6 piece band, including violin as well as sax… Brilliant version of U2’s “Still haven’t found what I’m looking for” as a blues swing ballad in 6/8
Hope Clayburn & Soul Scrimmage -  full on funky
The Mellowtones – 7 piece gospel soul combo: very funky and full of energy.
Blind Mississippi Morris – good earthy blues – not my favourite style, but good.
Ms Nikki and the Soul Survivors – fabulous soul performer with decent band.

HIghlights were:  Joyce Cobb and Ms Nikki.

The speeches of Martin Luther King – not exactly music, but music nonetheless…

Train Klaxons – they seemed to be a minor 3rd here, second inversion. (You’ll remember they were major 6th in Lousiana.)  Then there was one I couldn’t process in musical terms – then I heard it again: a minor 3rd WITH a 6th so it was notes 5, 6, 8, 3m !
So here’s another mystery of the transatlantic world:  who decides what notes form the klaxon sound?  Is it the trian driver?  is it decreed daily from an office in Chicago?  Is it predetermined for eternity by the klaxon manufacturer or fitter?  Who decides?  I mean given the number of times the klaxon sounds (very, very often), this is a major socio-musical decision affecting the lives of thousands of people.  Are their lives going to covered in the sorrow of a minor 3rd or the finale flourish of a major 6th?  Why don’t they create a nice fat 9th?  Or why don’t they do different chords on different trains so you could say “Ah – there’s the Memphis Flyer” or “That’s the mail train – my letter might just get through to New York.”

PS In England they seem to only ever be two separate notes in succession: a major third.